"Let’s assume that two days before Christmas in 1993, a 22-year-old black woman named Jamie Scott and her pregnant, 19-year-old sister Gladys set up an armed robbery. Let’s assume these single mothers lured two men to a spot outside the tiny town of Forest, Miss., where three teenage boys, using a shotgun the sisters supplied, relieved the men of $11 and sent them on their way, unharmed.

"Assume all of the above is true, and still you must be shocked at the crude brutality of the Scott sisters’ fate. You see, the sisters, neither of whom had a criminal record before this, are still locked away in state prison, having served 16 years of their double-life sentences.

"It bears repeating. Each sister is doing double life for a robbery in which $11 was taken and nobody was hurt. Somewhere, the late Nina Simone is moaning her signature song: Mississippi Goddam."

Pitts continued:

"For the record, two of the young men who committed the robbery testified against the sisters as a condition of their plea bargain. All three reportedly received two-year sentences and were long ago released. No shotgun or forensic evidence was produced at trial. The sisters have always maintained their innocence.

"Observers are at a loss to explain their grotesquely disproportionate sentence. Early this year, the Jackson Advocate, a weekly newspaper serving the black community in the state capital, interviewed the sisters’ mother, Evelyn Rasco. She described the sentences as payback for her family’s testimony against a corrupt sheriff. According to her, that sheriff’s successor vowed revenge."

Lenore J. Daniels added last year on BlackCommentator.com:

"Evelyn Rasco has been fighting for her daughters' release the last 14 years. Rasco lost her husband and an older daughter who died of congenital heart failure in 2001. This daughter left behind a 5 year old child. In these last 14 years, Rasco has tried to be the grandmother and the mother of 10 children (includes grandchildren of Jamie and Gladys) while sustaining the battle to free her two remaining daughters from prison."

Unlike in antebellum Mississippi, some of the accused villains in this saga, in both the prosecution and in law enforcement, are African American.

Among the sisters' most ardent champions is Nancy R. Lockhart, who came across the sisters' case as a law student working with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. As a volunteer, Lockhart has dedicated her attention to the Scott sisters' case for the last four years.

Lockhart told Journal-isms on Monday that her piece came to the attention of Rip Daniels, a Realtor who owns WJZD in Gulfport, Miss., via a friend who read the piece in Cuba.

Daniels began publicizing the case on his station. He even urged listeners to write in the names of the sisters in opposition to the reelection bid of the presiding judge in their trial, Marcus Gordon.

The case drew more attention in February after a small crowd gathered outside the state capitol in Jackson to push for the sisters' release.

"At the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Pearl, where Jamie and Gladys are incarcerated, medical services are provided by a private contractor called Wexford, which has been the subject of lawsuits and legislative investigations in several states over inadequate treatment of the inmates in its care. According to Jamie Scott’s family, in the six weeks since her condition became life-threatening, she has endured faulty or missed dialysis sessions, infections, and other complications. She has received no indication that a kidney transplant is being considered as an option, though her sister is a willing donor."

Then, in May, Ridgeway quoted from a letter from Jamie Scott:

"The living condition in quickbed area is not fit for any human to live in. I have been incarcerated for 15 years 6 months now and this is the worst I have ever experience. When it rain out side it rain inside. The zone flood like a river. The rain comes down on our heads and we have to try to get sheets and blankets to try to stop it from wetting our beds and personnel property...I am fully aware that we are in prison, but no one should have to live in such harsh condition. I am paranoid of catching anything because of what I have been going throw with my medical condition."

The case caught the attention of cable television when CNN's Jane Velez-Mitchell used it on March 4 to illustrate the disparities in the criminal justice system. Lockhart posted the video on her website.

For all the news outlets who have mentioned the Scott sisters case, however, many more have not. Lockhart praises Charles Evers, the civil rights leader who is station manager for WMPR-FM in Jackson, and investigative reporter Kathy Y. Times of WDBD-TV in Jackson, who is also president of the National Association of Black Journalists. But Lockhart can also name media outlets that have not returned telephone calls or have made inquiries but never followed up.

"The media have been very important," she told Journal-isms, but the women are still in prison and at least one is in need of medical attention. Gov. Haley Barbour is weighing a pardon, but that is by no means certain. "We still need a lot of coverage. There are still a lot of people who don't know about this case," Lockhart said. "The media are very much needed in this case. I do not exaggerate when expressing the medical condition that Jamie is in. We need more of a public outcry!"

"December's American Vogue features eight Asian models who are, according to the magazine, 'redefining traditional concepts of beauty,' " James Lim noted last week in New York magazine.

"Which raises the question, 'traditional concepts of beauty' where, exactly?" added Jen Wang on the website Disgrasian. "Because there are plenty of places in the world where, traditionally speaking, Asian women have long been considered beautiful. Like in, um, Asia, for example? Even in Western countries, Asian beauty, for lack of a more specific term, isn’t a new concept (although, granted, sometimes, it’s a creepy, fetishy one.)

"And since that covers 3/4 of the world’s population, what’s left?

"Vogue magazine, that’s what.

"Let’s think about this for a second: American Vogue has never featured an Asian model on its cover in its 40-plus years of featuring models on its cover (unless you count Blasian Naomi Campbell). American Vogue also has a dismal track record when it comes to featuring non-white models in general. So, by featuring a 'new' crop of Asian models in its pages, American Vogue is 'redefining traditional concepts of beauty' held by . . . American Vogue."

President Obama speaks to the Indian Parliament on Nov. 8 as rumors spread back home that his trip would cost taxpayers $200 million a day. (Credit: Pete Souza/White House)

"In case you missed it, a story circulated around the Web on the eve of President Obama’s trip that it would cost U.S. taxpayers $200 million a day — about $2 billion for the entire trip. Cooper said he felt impelled to check it out because the evening before he had had Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a Republican and Tea Party favorite, on his show and had asked her where exactly Republicans will cut the budget.

"Instead of giving specifics, Bachmann used her airtime to inject a phony story into the mainstream. She answered: 'I think we know that just within a day or so the president of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day. He’s taking 2,000 people with him. He’ll be renting over 870 rooms in India, and these are five-star hotel rooms at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. This is the kind of over-the-top spending.'

"The next night, Cooper explained that he felt compelled to trace that story back to its source, since someone had used his show to circulate it. His research, he said, found that it had originated from a quote by 'an alleged Indian provincial official,' from the Indian state of Maharashtra, 'reported by India’s Press Trust, their equivalent of our A.P. or Reuters. I say "alleged," provincial official,' Cooper added, 'because we have no idea who this person is, no name was given.' ”

"In her new family memoir, 'Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family' (Crown Archetype, October 2010), Condoleezza Rice recalls her childhood in the parallel worlds of segregated Birmingham, where her attentive parents did their best to shield her from the daily degradations of being black in Alabama in the '50s and '60s," Kenneth J. Cooper, a Boston-based freelancer and Denver native, wrote Sunday for the Denver Post.

"The Rices refused to sip from 'colored only' fountains and on road trips carried their own food.

". . . her parents sent their only child to St. Mary's Academy, the same year I entered Graland Country Day. At St. Mary's, her estrangement from black Denver took firm hold, by her account.

"Two other black girls were in Condoleezza's class of 70 students. She remembers that 'a huge wall separated me from my black sisters. Maybe I was just the new kid on the block, or I didn't try hard enough, but I sure didn't feel welcomed by the few black students.'

"At Graland, class tensions divided me and a couple of more prosperous black students. It's hard to say similar problems existed at St. Mary's: One black classmate from an accomplished family once told me she felt young Condoleezza looked down on her. . . .

"On her book tour or another visit to Denver, I hope a black intimate with northeast Denver takes the former secretary of state on a fact-finding mission to correct her misimpressions. Perhaps her guide could be former Mayor Wellington Webb."

"For anyone decrying some great loss of history, I would argue that the history is secure," Easter wrote. "More important than Johnson Publishing owning the building or residing in it is that the building even existed for its time. It stands as a major achievement. Historians and preservationists should be more concerned that the landmark does not get torn down and that its story be told prominently and correctly.

"As for the company itself, I would advise my former colleagues not to wait to move. Get out as soon as possible and begin anew. Scrap the 'world's largest black publishing company' hype and start acting like a startup. Find a funky warehouse with creaky floors, drafty windows and exposed beams, and a great view of an alley — some space that reeks of innovation, creativity and growth. Then crank the music loud and start having fun again. Less Mad Men, more Facebook."

"Media owners from across the African continent today vowed to end reliance on donor funding and rid the industry of corrupt practices," the African Media Initiative announced from Cameroon, West Africa, on Friday.

"This is a watershed moment that holds out the promise of a new dawn in African media," said Trevor Ncube, co-chairman of the African Media Initiative, a continent-wide body that sponsors the African Media Leaders Forum.

"The three year old Forum brought together more than 225 African media owners from 48 African countries, as well as international media experts. The purpose of the meeting was aimed at coming to a consensus around the best ways to develop an African media that meets the needs of a dramatically changing media landscape, while instilling the highest professional standards and ethical reporting. . . .

"Attending the meeting were representatives from African financial institutions that pledged to assist in transforming media institutions into both viable businesses and effective purveyors of credible news and information."

Some communities don't like to be stereotyped as redneck, reader representative Derek Donovan wrote Sunday in the Kansas city Star. "The people who contacted me weren’t laughing . . . over a caption that ran with a photo of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who had recently appeared at the Country Music Awards with a new haircut that resembled a shorter version of the 'mullet' — short on the top and sides, long in the back — that he wore when he rose to fame in the early 1990s. Cyrus 'rocked it like Raytown,' read The Star’s caption. 'I found very sad that your paper would try to contribute to the negative image that the media continues to associate to Raytown,' wrote Raytown resident Terri Danner. 'We are not the redneck community that we are painted as by the media. We are an up-and-coming multicultural community that is close to everything.' "

" 'Sunrise' anchor Grace Lee will anchor her last 'Hawaii News Now' morning show on Wednesday, the last day of the November Nielsen ratings period," Erika Engle reported Saturday for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. "Her impending departure was announced on the air yesterday, with further news that she had accepted a reporter-anchor position with KPIX-TV, the CBS-owned and operated station in San Francisco."

In changes announced Monday by ABC News, Akiko Fujita joins ABC News as a digital journalist based in Tokyo. She was previously a reporter with ABC’s Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV. Yunji de Nies moves to Atlanta, where she will join Steve Osunsami. Prior to her most recent assignment at the White House, de Nies worked as a correspondent for NewsOne, the network’s affiliate news service, the network said.

Sports columnist Michael Wilbon said this of his decision to leave the Washington Post for an expanded role at ESPN: "It was a pretty traumatic day for me on Wednesday, I guess, to tell Don Graham," chairman of the Washington Post Co., according to Dan Steinberg, writing on washingtonpost.com. "Look, I'm 52 years old and I worked at the Washington Post for 31-and-a-half years. People can do the math. It's a greater part of my identity than anything else in my life, and that's including my wife and child, because they're relatively new to the scene."

Among other features, the new Trice Edney News Wire has launched with Part One of a periodic series, "The Terrorism of Racism," by news wire founder Hazel Trice Edney, formerly of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service.

Richard Prince's Journal-isms originates from Washington and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It began in print before most of us knew what the Internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a "column." For newcomers: The words in blue (on most computers) are links leading to more information. The Web site BugMeNot.com provides passwords and user names to some registration-only news sites, but use may be illegal in some states. Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity.

A friend shared this quote with me upon hearing the news that Johnson Publishing had sold its legendary building: "Roots barren, lower branches bare. Its crown still a brilliant green, unaware that the foundation is no more. A tree has been dead long before it falls."

The friend almost got it right. I believe Linda Johnson Rice has known for a while that JPC is dead.

Full disclosure: I directed JPC's Web strategy for nearly a year during 2006 & '07 before Bryan Monroe blindsided me with a firing a couple of months after he came aboard to run the magazines. I was reinstated by Linda Johnson Rice in another position and then she terminated that position a couple of months later. I wrote a book tilted "Fired Up" about how I rebounded from the experience.

JPC (the tree) died years ago and has been on life support. Why? Linda has been unable to adapt to the change in the market forces (digital, racial, culture and generational) that enabled JPC to thrive. Why? Linda is actually a likeable person, but she is not a strategic thinker and planner. Most importantly, she is not passionate about the publishing business. She has known for a while that her passions are elsewhere and has wanted out. She has been trapped in the building she has known her entire life.

It's a classic biz school case of the child who grew up in the family business not wanting to continue it, nor having the skill to take it to the next level. It's a JPC fact that continues to be danced around, but Linda lacks the business savvy of contemporaries such as, Oprah, Martha Stewart and Cathy Hughes (the likes of Tyra Banks and Queen Latifah have passed her). Otherwise, Linda would not have had the revolving door of younger execs (including myself) with visions of taking “this iconic brand" to the new heights. Each JPC media release is actually a pre-obituary.

The typical Black consumer has already moved on, realizing the tree has fallen. Web traffic, subscription and revenue declines bear witness. JPC's important critical contribution to American history is secure, but to my colleagues and friends who remain, I’m sorry to say that the "brilliant green" of Ebony and Jet is, in fact, history. Actually, they know this already.

Even with strong innovative leadership at the helm, it is very difficult – nearly impossible – for any "old media" company to adjust and prosper amid new media realities. If the leader isn't passionate about the business, it's merely a slow death march. From time spent with, and my observations of Linda, I believe she has known this about herself for a while. I wish her the best in putting Ebony/Jet to rest and using her remaining inherited wealth to pursue her true passions; as the lesson of my book suggests, Linda ought to get "Fired Up."

(By the way, Mr. Johnson also owned the building next door to the south of JPC's headquarters. Linda sold it in 2006, I believe.)

I see there is a petition to the Mississippi governor but to my mind, this is should be made a federal matter. President Obama should send in the feds or US military to bust them out! I would if I was president!

Hurray upon dailies and authors discovering common sense and dare writing even against the mainstream.

Are the Scott Sisters imprisoned for punishment or for security might be the question. Let close with Stanis?aw Jerzy Lec (1909 – 1966): “What prosperity must be in a state that makes it possible having one half of citizen for security staff and the other half imprisoned on public expenses?”

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